Road trips can be a truly fun experience. They were always exciting to me as a child, and it almost didn’t matter where we were headed, just as long as we were headed somewhere. It’s not the destination, it’s the journey, right? Although I must say, if it’s all about the journey, I better be comfortable during that journey. That’s why I distinctly remember one road trip in particular when we headed northwest into the mountains. We were headed to a mountain retreat and I was dozing off thinking about how much fun I was going to have skiing, and relaxing and drinking hot chocolate in a comfortable lodge. Not long after my eyes closed however, I woke up with a start because of how chilly it seemed to be in the van. I asked Dad what was going on with the heater, and he said, “Now that you mention it, it doesn’t seem to be working very well.” Shortly after, mom and my sister chimed in that it was getting colder and colder in the van. That’s when we realized that the heater had stopped working entirely. This was not a good thing, because at that point, we were driving through largely uninhabited areas traveling up the mountain sides. A light dusting of snow has begun to fall, and mom checked the temperature on her phone and said it was a brisk 21 degrees in the area! In the end, we had to stop short of the ski lodge to find a hotel on the way, so that we would be warm and comfortable for the night. There was nothing quite like stepping into that nice, warm hotel room after having to drive with no heat!